Chabad Mumbai: Remembering, Rebuilding

Nine years after a terror attack, Chabad continues to build upon a legacy of love

(Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Chabad emissary in Mumbai Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky lights a candle at the spot where his predecessor, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg was killed during the 2008 terrorist attacks.

by Shaindle Fogelman

November 28, 2017

Nine years ago this week, terrorists stormed the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai. Members of the Islamic terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba held Chabad representatives Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg and four of their guests hostage, before brutally murdering them. Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg was saved by his nanny. The 2008 terrorist attacks left 166 people in Mumbai dead in a four-day coordinated attack.

Chabad of Mumbai has since continued to advance the work of the Holtzbergs, and new centers like the Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg Jewish Welcome Center in the Virgin Islands, have opened around the world inspired by their memory. Chabad-Lubavitch preschools, Gan Rivka, named for Rivka Holtzberg are active in places such as Marin, CA and Rome, Italy.

In Seoul, South Korea, Chabad dedicated the Korea Jewish Library in the Holtzberg’s honor. And the Holtzberg Hospitality Home which serves students and faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was dedicated in tribute to the open hospitality at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai.

Today the Nariman Chabad House is once again a vibrant center for educational activities. The six-story building includes a kosher kitchen and library. Current emissaries Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky feel they have big shoes to fill: “My wife, Chaya, and I are humbled to be a part of, and to continue the holy work of Rabbi Gabi and Rivka Holtzberg.” The Kozlovskys hope to open a memorial museum on the premises.

Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu will be visiting the site in January of 2018.

Visitors tour the Chabad (Nariman) House in Mumbai, India at its inauguration in August 2014. On the wall is a photo of Moshe Holtzberg, surviving son of slain Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg of Mumbai. (Credit: EPA)

Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky, originally of Israel, now Chabad emissaries in Mumbai. The couple "are humbled to be a part of, and to continue the holy work of Rabbi Gabi and Rivka Holtzberg.” (Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky)

Gan Rivka in Rome, Italy, a state-of-the-art preschool dedicated to the memory of Rivka Holtzberg, sets up an Israeli marketplace for their students. (Chabad-Lubavitch of Rome)

Inclusion seems to be the buzzword of the year. But what does it mean?
This February the Ruderman Chabad Inclusion Initiative has partnered with Friendship Circle International to get this word into the limelight.

Since 2008, Rabbi Osher and Mussy Litzman, South Korea’s first permanent rabbi, have been the address for all things Jewish to the 500-1000 Jews living in Seoul at any given time. To Jewish diplomats, English teachers, businessmen, students and US army families living in South Korea’s capital, the Chabad House is a “Jewish Embassy.”

Chabad Young Professionals of Melbourne celebrated their two-year milestone this week with a gala at the River Room in the chic Crown Towers downtown. Members of CYP were joined by friends, supporters, local rabbis and community leaders as they marked another successful year of a fledgling organization with their first annual gala.

Rabbi Berel and Rochy Slavaticki and newborn son Mendel are moving to the town of Durham, home to the University of New Hampshire. UNH, a liberal arts college and public research university, comprises of 15,000 students. 600 of them are Jewish.

But there’s been a growing interest among a diverse group of local Jews, particularly young families, to cultivate a Jewish community in Reykjavik. And a recent tourism boom has been bringing millions of visitors (outnumbering the country’s population of seven to one) to experience its northern lights, its volcanoes and lava fields. It seems a good time, say Avi and Mushky Feldman, to be setting down roots in the land of fire and ice.

Rabbi Berel and Rochy Slavaticki and newborn son Mendel are moving to the town of Durham, home to the University of New Hampshire. UNH, a liberal arts college and public research university, comprises of 15,000 students. 600 of them are Jewish.

Cape Town, South Africa’s second largest city, is facing a drought so severe that city officials are planning to turn off all water on April 12. Sarah Wineberg doesn’t remember the last time her kids had a normal bath. They’ve been bathing in a bucket, one after the next, using the same water.

Dvora Lakein | Thursday, February 1

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